12 



had to chip another block, and again broke silence with "more 

 grits." Not so our old friend who was full of grit and " wise 

 saws and modern instances." To the Vicar of Marske he wrote 

 in 1902 on the subject of Field names and other matters. "I 

 am glad to hear you are working out, in conjunction with such 

 an able antiquary as Mr. Fallow matters connected with the 

 history of your parish, I am especially pleased to hear that you 

 are taking up the question of old field-names. I have copied all 

 the field-names in this parish, and I am not without hope of 

 getting the same thing done in most of the parishes of Cleve- 

 land, i found, as you are apparently doing, that the investigation 

 threw much light on the old open field system. I am able to 

 trace the boundaries of the old open-fields to a considerable 

 extent. In the Spring and Summer I must try to get you to 

 spare me an hour or two some fine afternoon to walk through 

 your parish paying attention to some of these matters. I do 

 not think I have any special knowledge regarding indications of 

 the " glacial period, etc., in the Parish of Marske. I think 

 there are some remains of peat or forest bed between Marske 

 and Redcar but, nearer to the latter, somewhere near the rifle 

 butts, I think Some years ago Mr. J. M. Meek brought for my 

 inspection some plant remains which he had obtained from the 

 Estuarine Beds of the Lower Oolites, if I remember rightly, 

 somewhere above New Marske. I think he said there was a 

 footpath up the hill close to the place where he obtained them. 

 I should like to visit that spot sometime if I could localise 

 it. Perhaps you may know it. I am not sure that it was near 

 New Marske. The Geological Survey Memoir on " North 

 Cleveland " says '• about a mile west of Marske and opposite 

 Eed Howls is an exposure of 'shale with hard bands,' 

 which can only be seen under favourable circumstances, as 

 it is so often sand covered. Messrs Tate and Blake give 

 Ammonites Semicostatus and Ammonites bisulcatus, from these 

 beds, and refer them to the zone of Ammonites Buclc- 

 landi. Mr. Geo. Barrow, the Geological Survey Officer, who 

 surveyed the N. Cleveland District, made four visits to the spot 

 without being able to see this outcrop. As you are on the spot, 

 you have a good chance of catching it in an unclothed condition, 

 and if you could get some of its fossils they might prove interest- 

 ing — of course there is plenty of glacial drift in your parish." 



In another letter " of course I have long known that there 

 was a buried forest at Redcar, but I have never given any very 

 special attention to the matter, and have hardly had it before 

 my mind for years at least. I do not remember having heard 

 what you say about it. and an account written by an eye witness 



